Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
by JoannaBanana91
Summary: Gabe Holbrook is angry at Hanna Marin, and refuses to be swayed from what he believes to be a justifiable feeling. But he soon learns that holding a grudge may not be the best way to go about things...especially with someone he once cared about. Maybe he still does...


**A/N:** Alright, so the premise of this is that Gabe regrets what he did in 5x18 and slowly becomes convinced that it's too late to make things right. Or is it? *insert evil laughter here* Also, please note that in this story Gabe knows that Cece is bad news, but doesn't know the full extent of her crimes.

* * *

It had been three weeks since the girls were last seen. Or more importantly, since Hanna was last seen.

Gabe paced around his small apartment trying to wrap his head around what was happening.

 _"Who could've taken them? And why haven't they been found yet? Maybe they've already been killed...,"_ the negative thought filled up his mind like a dark cloud.

Gabe waved away the terrible thought and stopped pacing. He looked over at his desk and spotted a light purple cap lying over a stack of books. It was a gift from his mom when he was only thirteen years old -roughly around the same time that his younger brother Nathan was born.

But Gabe wasn't thinking about the heartfelt gift given to him by his mother at a rather exciting Sherlock-Holmes-themed birthday party. He was thinking about the day he had gotten the cap back from the Rosewood P.D. More importantly, the day he was suspended, aka: the worst day of his life.

 **~*Five Weeks Ago*~**

As he watched Hanna drive away Gabe couldn't help but feel a mixture of amazement, anger, and relief. Amazed by Hanna's strength, angered by his suspension, and relieved that he would never have to see her again.

 _"I hope I never have to see her again. I've had enough people betraying me for one day,"_ he bitterly thought as her car disappeared into the distance.

Gabe walked over to the cop car, opened the door, got into the driver's seat and sat down. For one second he felt an overwhelming rush of guilt over what he had tried to do to Hanna, but he quickly dismissed it. He refused to feel guilty about this despite knowing that the act of scaring the hell out of her was completely uncalled for. If he let himself feel guilty for even one second, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from catching up to her and apologizing.

She didn't deserve _anything_ from him.

 **~*Two Hours Later*~**

After a scorning lecture from Tanner on the importance of returning cop cars on time, Gabe bid her farewell and made his way to the door. He had gotten the rest of his belongings from his desk and had even managed to get his cap back.

 _"Maybe not such a bad end to a terrible day,"_ he thought as he walked out of the station.

 **~*Two Weeks Later*~**

Settling into his apartment away from Rosewood certainly took some getting used to. Since he was still suspended, he was going to have to figure out a way to make-do with the money that was still leftover in his bank account. Before he could figure out a way to try and stretch five hundred dollars (thank God he never used the money to buy a gift for his brother), he noticed the newspaper lying on the desk near him. He had bought the newspaper two days ago, but never even bothered to read it. He only bought it because he needed something to write on, but upon looking more closely at the paper, he noticed an article that caught his eye. One that he should have noticed the moment he bought it.

 _Rosewood P.D. has a new suspect in the murder of Mona Vanderwaal, current high school senior, Hanna Marin. The two were believed to have been close friends, but appeared to have gone their separate ways long before Mona's death. Police are now holding a trial concerning..._

Gabe had to do a double-take. Hanna and Alison must have come up with a pretty elaborate scheme if they both wanted to be in jail. Unless...

No. There was absolutely no way he was wrong about Hanna's betrayal. Not after he had... No, it was all just one big coincidence. Part of a bigger master plan between the two girls.

Right?

And then it all came rushing back to him like a rude awakening.

 _"You could have said no."_

The words clung to him like a weight he had never felt before. He spent all of this time being angry when he should have been asking himself, "Why?"

Gabe slowly made his way to the couch and sunk into the seat.

 _"I'm an idiot. No, I'm worse than an idiot, because I am a complete and utter dumb-ass. I hurt my friend and never looked back,"_ he thought grimly as he stared off into space.

Gabe bolted out of the chair and went to reach for his cellphone on the table nearby, but then he stopped himself. He was suspended. There was no way he was going to get to Hanna and apologize now. The Rosewood P.D. might recognize him if he came back into town.

He sighed and looked at the purple cap crammed into a tiny space in his bookshelf.

 _"Looks like that day was a lot worse than I originally thought,"_ he thought to himself with regret.

 **~*Four Days Later*~**

Gabe rushed into the store to buy another newspaper. He had heard online that Alison had been declared guilty and that the rest of the girls were accused of being her accomplices. He needed to know where the girls were being kept, but what he found instead disappointed him.

 _Alison DiLaurentis, the prime murder suspect in the Mona Vanderwaal case is currently..._

Gabe skipped until he found what he had been looking for -Hanna's name.

 _The four accomplices to DiLaurentis include high school students Aria Montgomery, Spencer Hastings, Emily Fields, and Hanna Marin. The girls were supposed to have gone to another facility but the van carrying them was mysteriously hijacked. The police thought they had a lead on the whereabouts of the young ladies at the Campbell Farm, but that turned out to be a dead end. The police currently have no idea where the girls are, or who could be responsible. If you have any information on the location of the four girls, please contact the Rosewood Police Department at..._

First disappointment, now sadness and regret. Gabe put the newspaper down and swiftly walked out the door.

 **~*Two and a half weeks later*~**

He felt like an idiot for actually messing with Alison's lie detector test. If he thought Hanna and her friends were in danger than he should have gone to them instead of following Cece's orders. Better yet, he shouldn't have let himself get involved with Alison in the first place. But it was too late. He had already done it.

"I should have confronted Cece head on instead of trying to get inside her inner circle," he said out loud as he thumbed through articles on the girls and their kidnapping. He was running on little hope now.

"Well there's nothing you can do about it now, so just deal with it," James, his father, said nonchalantly as he stood against his motor home. Gabe turned around so fast it almost gave him whip-lash. His father on the other hand, didn't even blink.

"Dad! I can't just sit here and do nothing! I hate this feeling of not being able to do anything, and you know that," he said as his father looked him at disapprovingly. This was the third time they had talked about this in the last two weeks, but Gabe didn't care. He got up to say something else, but before he could say anything his dad put up his hand to stop him.

"Look, Gabriel, I'm tired of arguing with you on this. At this point you might as well ask Nathan what you should do," he said with a laugh.

"He's ten! What does he know about police suspensions and kidnappings?"

"Hey I heard that!"

Gabe turned around to find his brother Nathan (short for Nathaniel) sitting on his bike with a smirk on his face.

"So did you ever find your girlfriend or what?" he said managing to turn the smirk into a grin. Gabe fake laughed and leveled himself with his brother's bike.

"She's not my girlfriend Nathan, I've already told you this. She's just a friend," he said for what must have been the hundredth time.

"Well, she seemed worried about you when she came here a few weeks ago, and now you're worried about her. Are you sure you're not-"

"Hey Nathan, I bet you can't ride around this entire place twice in under ten minutes."

"I so can!"

"Good, then ride. Ride like the wind!" Gabe mockingly yelled as he pushed his brother's bike to give him a head start.

"I'M GONNA GET YOU FOR THIISSSSSSSSSS..." Nathan's voice echoed as he gained control of the bike and maneuvered around the ruins of the trailer park.

Gabe turned to find his father still standing there with that same look of disapproval on his face.

"You always were impulsive. Even when you were a boy, the way you would stuff your face with all of those caramels and then complain whenever you got a stomachache-"

"Okay, dad I get it. I'm a dumb-ass. Believe me I know."

 **~*Four Days Later*~**

The cap was mocking him the way it silently sat there on the stack of books. Reminding him of all of his pointless anger toward Hanna during those two weeks. He should have gone after her. He should have tried to visit her in jail and at least try and apologize. There were a lot of things he should have done that he never did.

But he didn't have time to think. Alison was holding a press conference for her friends in front of her house in a couple of hours. Maybe he would be able to gain new insight into the kidnappings if he went to it...

 **~*Three Hours Later*~**

Gabe drove home disappointed yet again. It was just Alison begging for her friends to be returned home. No status updates on where the girls could be. At this point the thought of Hanna being dead seemed like more of a possibility than ever.

His last encounter with her replayed like a bad record in his mind.

Over and over again on a constant agonizing loop.

 **~*Two Weeks Later*~**

He drove through town to find a commotion up ahead. And then he saw her. Remembering his old police tricks, he parked just far enough away to see, but to not be seen. She and the rest of the girls were standing in front of a gallery while state police were carrying what looked like portraits into their van. What happened while she was kidnapped? He only heard rumors, but Gabe learned the hard way that not all rumors could be trusted. The only rumor he did trust was the one that said the girls had all gone through a terrible and traumatic experience. That, he did believe. It was written all over their faces.

Gabe had been thinking about this moment. Thinking about the right words to say when he saw her again, but nothing ever seemed right. "I'm sorry," just wasn't good enough. It felt too easy, and Hanna deserved _more_ than that.

He took one last look at Hanna, and with a heavy heart, turned on the ignition and drove away.

 **~*Five Years Later*~**

The break-up three months ago didn't really bother him, and the fact that it didn't should have been a wake-up call. He cared about Heather, but for some reason he could not bring himself to love her completely, and he didn't know why. Thankfully, the break-up was mutual and not full of bad-blood, but as Gabe lay down in his bed looking up at the ceiling, he struggled to figure out what was wrong with him.

He turned his head to look at his nightstand. He hadn't opened his mail yet, so he grabbed the letters to look them over.

"Junk, junk, credit-card offer, bill, bill, wow I really need to go paperless on some of these, and one from...Rosewood?" Gabe sat up on his bed in shock as he muttered the last word. He ripped open the letter and found a surprising jumble of words inside:

 _The investigation in the murder of Charlotte "Cece" DiLaurentis has been opened up to past members of the Rosewood Police Force. You,_ _ **Gabriel Holbrook**_ _, are required to attend a brief questioning with Rosewood Police Detective Lorenzo Calderon at noon on Friday afternoon. Failure to attend will result in..._

Gabe put down the letter. He was being forced back into Rosewood.

He should have felt happy (and there was a small part of him that did), but most of what he felt was fear.

What if he saw her again? Hanna? What would he say?

For the first time in years, Gabe was actually scared.

And he didn't know why.

THE END.

* * *

 **A/N:** AKA, THE PLOT THAT SHOULD BE HAPPENING RIGHT NOW BUT ISN'T FOR SOME REASON?

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this. The idea just came to me after looking at caps from 6x01 and being completely convinced that Gabe is/was the brunette dude in the cap that walked by in the news footage. I like the idea of Spencer and Caleb because it's just another nail in the H&C coffin, but I hate the way they're trying to make it seem as if Hanna is suddenly jealous of what's happening between them. I still don't know why the writers can't see the obvious potential in Gabe and Hanna, but whatever. Oh, and yes I did steal that idea with Gabe and his brother from _Boy Meets World_. Fans of that show should know what scene I'm talking about (hint: it has to do with the bike).


End file.
